Gary Goetzman

1777. A new period of separation from Abigail looms when Adams is appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to France along with Benjamin Franklin. Abigail insists that Adams take along their son, John Quincy. The two endure a rough ocean voyage--and a skirmish with a British warship-in making their way to France. There, the difference in styles between Adams and the relaxed, epicurean Franklin become apparent. As Abigail, back home, fetes a French Admiral in her husband's stead, Adams endures a series of uncomfortable encounters in Paris, and his strident demands that France increase their naval commitment to America's war effort draws the wrath of Franklin, whose credo is that a good diplomat can accomplish much by appearing to accomplish little. After sending John Quincy to Russia to work as secretary to the American minister there, Adams falls victim to a long illness and fever, helpless to further advance the revolution he helped spawn.

In the immediate aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Marine Sgt. John Basilone prepares to ship out and confront the enemy somewhere in the Pacific, while budding journalist Robert Leckie enlists in the Marine Corps. Eugene Sledge, unable to enlist because of a heart murmur, says farewell to his best friend, Sidney Phillips, who is about to leave for boot camp. Exactly eight months after Pearl Harbor, the 1st Marine Division, including Leckie and Phillips, lands on Guadalcanal in order to secure its strategically vital airfield and prepare for the inevitable counterattack.

In retirement, Adams starts writing his memoirs, then endures a series of tragedies when his daughter Nabby dies of cancer and, a few years later, Abigail succumbs to typhoid fever. At the urging of Dr. Rush, Adams reports the sad news to Jefferson, with the two old friends and adversaries taking solace in a correspondence that mends old wounds and lasts the rest of their lives. On July 4, 1826, having lived to see his son John Quincy become President, 90-year-old John Adams dies on the 50th anniversary of the ratification of the Declaration of Independence--and on the very same day as Jefferson. On his deathbed, Adams utters, 'Thomas Jefferson survives.'

After battling across the island of Okinawa for over a month, Sledge and the rest of the 1st Marine Division are ordered to relieve an Army division that has been in combat against the most strongly defended Japanese position on the island. The primordial conditions and the moral dilemma posed by the presence of civilians put tremendous strain on the physical and psychological endurance of Sledge and the other Marines.